PUNE, JANUARY 6: "Technology is a great leveller.... An ATM does not seewhether you are well-dressed or not. Or, for that matter, whether you canspeak good English.... All it needs is your pin number. The poorer sectionof the society must have access to technology... The banks must embracetechnology as if there is no tomorrow."Thus spake Infosys Technologies Ltd chairman NR Narayana Murthy at aNational Institute of Bank Management seminar on "Banking in the nextmillennium" in Pune on Thursday. He was delivering the keynote address in asession on IT trends in Indian banking.
Stating that out of 65,000 bank branches in the country, only 3000 branchesare fully computerised and another 10,000 partially computerised, NarayanaMurthy said one million bank employees should not deprive 100 million bankcustomers of the technology-driven services.
"Electronic delivery channel is the need of the hour as it reduces thetransaction cost," he said. The Infosys chief also hinted at an indirectlink between the use of technology and the quality of assets in the bankingsector. "Strong corporates may perfer the equity route to debt for raisingmoney ... Unless the banks equip themselves technologically they may end uphaving only lower quality customers and in the process growing theirNPAs.
If they want to reach the stature of the preferred banker on a global scale,they must embrace technology in a big way," Narayan Murthy said.However, hewarned the senior bankers present at the conference that technology is an"enabler" and not a "panacea". "The public sector banks must appreciate thepower of technology and carry the benefit of technology of the poorest ofpoors. This is also imperative against the backdrop of their falling spreadsas the electronic delivery channel reduces the transaction costsubstantially," Murthy pointed out.Earlier speaking at the Science Congress, Murthy called for macro level changes to enable Indians entrepreneurship toachieve its full potential.
For unleashing entrepreneurship controls will have to be replaced withgreater freedom to do business, Murthy said. He said the government shouldkeep its hand off from the business of running hotels, airlines and otherservice sectors. The Infosys chief called for private industry participationin population control and school education. "A mechanism of passing the jobof controlling population to the private sector needs to be worked out," hesaid.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.